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Comments

Thats pretty frustrating, I hate the way youtube so often reacts without any grounds other than accusation. And whats going on over at sony? Weird.

http://nightfly19.sagenite.net Sage Imel

That's how DMCA works

http://www.unitedfilmdom.com/ unitedfilmdom

Sadly.

fongaboo

Submit a counter-claim. Then they have 2 weeks to take you to court. That's also how it works.

If it's obviously bullshit, they won't do anything and your stuff has to go back up.

Oliver Scarlett-Horrocks

No, with YouTube, after you file a dispute they have 30 days to release or reinstate their claim. If they reinstate, you can file an appeal (though you can only have 3 open appeals at once, and you can only appeal if your account is in good standing), and then they have another 30 days to accept your appeal or file a take-down notice. If they file a take-down notice, you can file a counter-notification, and they have 24 days to sue you or release their claim.

So your video can be down for up to 84 days even if it is fair use.

During the up to 24 days that you have a take-down claim against you, you have a strike against your account - your account is not in good standing. This means you can't file appeals. If you make the maximum 3 appeals at once, and they all come back with take-down notifications, you have 3 strikes against your account and it is is suspended, without infringing content ever being involved.

Even if that were true, just "going back up" is not enough - they should face some kind of penalty or else there is not sufficient incentive to prevent them from abusing the system again.

Danm

Penalty is an alternative to youtube. It seems they are getting too big for their own good.

Peter Houlihan

Afaik, if you submit a counterclaim you also have to agree to be sued in a federal court, even if you or your company isn't from the US.

basroil

From the looks of it it was just a content match, rather than an actual claim. If so, the problem lies squarely with Google, since their system doesn't care who actually owns the copyright.

trlkly

Nope, because Sony has to submit what videos count as getting a content match. It's not Google's fault if Sony tells them that they own a certain video. Google's only fault is in making too easy for companies to do this without repercussions.

And, just in case it's all automated, it's still Sony's fault, as, by allowing such a shutdown, they are in breach of copyright. It's their responsibility to file an exception for content they do not own.

basroil

If they had a 90 second video with 3 seconds of Sintel, Sony would have the right to claim copyright of their 90s video as a whole given the item is copyrightable. Google does content matches on partial content rather than the whole, so it is indeed their fault for not designing the system in such a way as to compartmentalize copyright ownership (i.e. 3 seconds of the 90s video was used but no copyright was claimed). Right now they just have a take it or leave it method, which means small clips within a copyrighted work are considered identical to the whole (which has always been wrong, since compilation works are common and have been since before modern copyright laws)

Peter Houlihan

It's still Sony's responsibility for authorising DMCA takedowns on that basis.

Maxim Tkachenko

WTF?

GIKKIO

??? REMEMBER!

Sony using Elephant dream movie for publicize e submit to the public a new DVD reader...

oh that's probably why then. that just Sony even more stuck up if they have the audacity to take public work and claim ownership of it just because they used it in an ad afterwards. that's kind of sneaky though, because all they have to do is reference their advert and pretend the content was meant for it :(

aliasguru

EXCUSE ME??????

http://www.polosson.com/ Paul Maillardet

oO!! Unbelievable! And inadmissible... Is there a way to find their motivations?

StealthHawk

If this is true, I will never buy a Sony product ever again. Period.

Vik Mulligan

I'm glad to hear so many people in the Blender community saying this. I think we should organize a large-scale boycott, and present a united front.

Brian Lockett

Meh, most Sony products are overpriced, gimmicky, and needlessly with with Sony-proprietary formats, anyways.

Brian Lockett

Plus, such protests pretty much never hurt anyone much but the protestors. We're not nearly big enough as the Blender community to affect them or make them care. Although, if only Blender Foundation would take heed of the suggestion to open up Project Gooseberry to the public more and raise more awareness of their voice to a wider demographic, you'd have far more people bothered by this sort of situation.

You'd see greater numbers of people caring about companies like Sony potentially threatening the likes of Project Gooseberry as supported by the wider public, rather than merely of Sintel, which pretty much only the Blender community supported.

To be honest, generally nobody really cares much about Sintel but Blender users, generally because it's only breaking new ground for Blender--not 3D animation. It's no big deal to the rest of the world, and even though Sintel had a cause of using open and free software to support a free, open philosophy, nobody got that message well enough but those already involved with Blender.

But Gooseberry is quite different. The world would get behinds its cause more, simply because of the sheer ambition of the project, as well as the project showcasing a full-length feature film using only free software.

If more people saw Project Gooseberry more publicly, and then see something like what has happened to Sintel, that'd get more people into "support" mode--perhaps more than enough people to make this campaign successful. If there's one thing people band together fast and strong in supporting, it's widely-publicized threats to any voice standing for a sense of freedom somewhere.

LarryWallpaper

Project Gooseberry could be made open to all audiences except Sony, I suppose :)

Brian Lockett

What if an employee at Sony wanted to support the cause but keep their job? Hahaha!

http://pax-imperia.com/ Chris Miller

Sony wouldn't care. They make most of their money on Asian insurance markets. I'm frankly not sure why they still bother selling electronics, though I suppose their multimedia empire still makes a tidy profit that looks good on quarterly reports.

Brian Lockett

Yeah, they should probably just become focused on their multimedia ventures more than their electronics. With the exception of gaming consoles, since at least the success of the PS4 is looking like a worthwhile venture. Maybe just become largely a gaming-focused company, and focus largely on gaming like Nintendo does, while keeping their movie and music side, too.

Surprisingly, even as badly as the Wii U has been doing over the past two years, Nintendo's got 10 billion in the bank, have no major issue with debt, and are technically in far better shape as a company than Sony is. Nintendo could survive the Wii U ultimately as a failure, and and just start with a new one. They can even afford to watch to see if the Wii U might see some new life as a very late bloomer. They're in no hurry.

Sony, on the other hand, is hinging a lot of hope on PS4, and struggle to make their initial three-year profit loss going into PS Vita as worthwhile. But if they'd focus on gaming exclusively, they'd also cut their losses elsewhere to give them risk-taking room for their best-selling venues with multimedia.

David Longmire

Multimedia is probably run as a near-separate entity. And diversification is important for the longevity of a business.

Brian Lockett

Sometimes, it's diversification that can kill a business, too. Case in point: Sony. Who ventures in everything from electronics to movies to music to software to merchandise to even life insurance (as Chris pointed out). They lose money on almost every product they sell, being too diversified in their risks. Besides, big companies don't usually distinguish well being diversifying and merely trying to take over new markets.

http://thebatsquad.com DJ03

It is, in the apple book they explain how the different parts of sony dont even talk to each other

Jimmy Beef

The fact that they have horribly shitty products should be enough to stop buying from them

Oskarkar

Never buy a Sony product! BOYCOT SONY!

Jeremy Brouwer

You know it's not really Sony's fault, right? The used a little piece of Sintel in an ad for some audio thing (I think), then youtube's auto copyright software saw Sintel and thought that it was breaching a copyright even though it wasn't. Now before you jump on Youtube's back about this, their software is only so awful because if they were at all lax about it, they would get sued by Viacom. Youtube is just trying to cover itself while getting big corporations to not hate them so that Google can one day enter the cable market.

Peter Houlihan

Youtube can't issue a DMCA takedown on Sony's behalf without their approval. Even if it's a bug in the automated process it's a bug in an automated process Sony agreed to.

TRC STYLEZ

Horrible to see this companies. One Reason more to Support Open Source Programs like Blender and let this Community grow. Hope for a change in this frustrating Situation.

Craig Richardson

I cant believe I am a sony fan right know, no sony your wrong, and do you know what I was wrong in buying your products.

http://www.bodhilinux.com/ Micah Denn

To clarify, this is almost definatly a mistake from youtube and not sony!

Shane

No this is Sony submitting a claim to youtube to block the content. It would appear that their legal department never got notified of the origin and licensing of material used in the promo, or someone forgot to get it cleared with legal.

http://pax-imperia.com/ Chris Miller

YouTube uses "automation" to screen content against a database of known copyrighted material. In this instance, it's very likely that the video tripped one of these automatic devices resulting in an immediate block.

Whether it's Sony's fault for supplying YouTube with rubbish material to scan against, or YouTube's fault for their filtering system being rubbish (as is amply documented by the whinging of many people), I don't think we know and given the tight-lipped nature of both corporations, we'll probably never know.

We'll get a lovely apology, the video will be unblocked, and a "commitment to ensuring that copyright is respected and upheld more faithfully in the future" will be made, but after all is said and done, more is said than done.

HaNi

correct, i myself had a similar experience. i uploaded a file which had a
similar name as a famous song so YouTube blocked it immediately without
even giving me a reason. the funny thing my vi doe wasn't even a song

ShoePie

This is spot on. I've had videos blocked before because of some automated system and it's easy to get reinstated. It happens, it shouldn't but it does.

A good time for Sony to make a donation to Project Gooseberry! :)

Peter Houlihan

To clarify, it doesn't matter if it was a mistake from youtube if Sony authorised the process.

InverseTelecine

...wow.

This would be funny if it weren't such an injustice. Youtube's copyright disaster has become the worst parody of itself possible. An utter scam.

e5dy

sony shame on you, youtube shame on you

some asking why?
did this really need an answer?
sony pictures is one of biggest film copyrighted owner
so why they do it? because you give them the power to did it!

Glich

1. File counter claim.. 2. when /if sony still blocks find lawyer and sue for some form of Tortious interference.

basroil

Better yet, they could simply sue outright because any takedown notice is a police report (through an authorized agent).
However, the best option is to file and wait 48 hours for Sony to respond. If Sony claims they own copyright, Blender Foundation can then sue them not only for copyright infingement, but willful infringement (triple damages), trademark infringement (since trademark is used illegall), filing a wrongful police report (since DMCA infringement claim, not just content match, gets forwarded to the cops), federal perjury, and a dozen other federal statues (USA is the best place to claim, biggest rewards). A few million in Blender's coffers+ a five-ten year "donation" agreement could do a lot of good, perhaps enough to hire another two or three fulltime programmers.

onjoFilms

I thought it was too good to be true. Sony was behind the curtain of Blender Foundation all along.

http://mattjordan.com/ Matt Jordan

This would be a good time - and a good reason - to consider supporting the MediaGoblin project. http://mediagoblin.org/

januz

THIS. The web was meant to be a decentralized system, not controlled by a few corporate overlords.

Leonard Siebeneicher

How many people have been sentenced to a fee or even to prison because of legal issues with Open Source products?

It wont be that many like there are for proprietary issues.

http://pax-imperia.com/ Chris Miller

The DMCA is not and never was about protecting content owners. It's about giving an advantage to multimedia empires, allowing them to operate unchallenged except by their trillionaire peers. Those of us in the weeds are not meant to toe it with the gods in the machines, that's what the DMCA is about.

Vik Mulligan

It sounds like a conspiracy theory, but there's truth to this. Modern technology -- particularly open-source technologies -- allow individual artists to do things in their living rooms that would have taken studios fifteen years ago. In an era when massive vinyl record-printing factories and large-scale record distribution infrastructure were necessary to get music to listeners, for example, there was some argument for large corporations to have a big hand in the entertainment industry. When an artist can make the music in his or her home, edit it on his or her laptop, and distribute it electronically, without any need for large-scale infrastructure, the relevance of the recording industry is thrown into question. The response has been attempts to enforce piracy laws more strongly and whatnot (ostensibly to protect artists, but really to protect corporate profits), but it's a losing battle for the recording industry: their business model is based on the outdated idea of controlling access to information, and technology makes information flow more and more freely.

Sintel demonstrates that the same is becoming true for the movie industry -- not merely for distributing movies, but for making movies. The powers that control the old means of making and distributing movies, such as Sony, are unlikely to take their newfound irrelevance lying down. This attack on Sintel could be the first salvo of a coming battle.

claas kuhnen

This has nothing todo with conspiracy theory but simply with the fact how specifically in the USA money and big industry is heavily influencing policy making. Just compare the quasi monopoles internet and phone providers have there compared to other countries and that resulting in prices in the USA being incredibly high because there is literally no competition.

Logically all companies would and will try to protect their turf and assets.
But thats where government comes in to regulate and assure fair competition.

Historically take a look at how Apple with iTunes was able to build a sales platform for music which even the big music companies were not able to do or also not willing to do.

ragething

you say "conspiracy theory". they say "business model".

http://pax-imperia.com/ Chris Miller

You are my new favorite person for that quote.

ragething

consider yourself welcome:)

Peter Houlihan

It is a conspiracy theory, or rather conspiracy fact. Large companies influencing a government lawmaking process to suit themselves easily fits the definition of conspiracy.

kram1032

This is almost definitely a false positive of some automatic filtering process. It's frustrating but I'm sure it'll be back up sooner rather than later.

But it's not just a mistake by youtube - Sony must have been sending a copyright infringement notification.
Only the question is why and especially why NOW? Sintel is from 2010 and by the way: there are different Sintel uploads on youtube, that are not blocked - why of all things the upload by Blender Foundation was "reported"?
Would it make sense to ask Sony at least on an "official" way like their twitter what the issue is about Sintel?

When you have a look to the details, they point out on 0:02 of Sintel - that's not even the opening credits...
I don't understand...

E B

Check out the comment by zekeyspacelizard on CartoonBrew (if we can publicize cases like this, we can go a long way toward fighting the copyright cartel's propaganda):

"A similar thing happened to a friend and I. We had produced an animated short a couple years ago and uploaded it to youtube. Since we both had partnership accounts we turned on the ads at the bottom.

About a week or so after we uploaded our film (which we worked very hard on), the views were going up very fast and our little film had gone viral. Suddenly some company called AudioFish or something claimed THEY owned the rights to the music in our film.

Which was impossible because the music was composed and commissioned for our film by a friend of ours who is a digital musician. So we fought with Youtube to give us back our music rights (and ad money which was being redirected to audiofish).

It took months. By the time we got our rights back the film had hit 2 million views, stopped being viral, dwindled, and we never saw a dime. All that money went to Audiofish, a company who exist solely to try and glean money off of unknown musicians on Youtube.

Every morning I wake up now hoping some other video site (dailymotion, vimeo, veoh etc) will find a way of killing Youtube. It is fascinating how poorly Youtube and Blogger are run, considering how relatively competent the rest of Google’s services are. With the popularity of the network it is embarrassing how BAD Youtube is handled. It is jaw-dropping.

And the rabbit hole goes deeper, too. This happens ALL the time on Youtube. And to make it worse, sponsors have been doing it as well. I have a lot of animator friends who have completely lost all control of their content and channels to Machinima, a very popular ad sponsor. And they have no way of fighting it or getting their channels back. They are forced to abandon their channels and make all NEW ones and re-re-re-upload all their content and start from scratch.

Youtube is a malignant growth on the horrid little animal that is the internet."

claas kuhnen

Google is like Sony, not much better, just focused on profit (while I would not call that evil).
But Google never did anything for the people out of good heart.

Reading this does not surprise me.

Sean Siefken

Isn't Google maps a free service? And the search engine, while possibly biased or influenced in some fashion, is another free service.

I agree that having money tends to cause the desire for more money, but I would argue against Google maps being a profit based venture. If I had 100,000 space bucks I would donate to the Blender Foundation. If I had seven million space bucks I would buy it and make blender 'truly yours and mine '. Those with power sometimes do things for the betterment of man (women are included in the genus 'man'.
Also, Sintel is back up on Youtube when I checked at 17:30 Monday arvo Japan time. I feel that this is/was a problem of automation, not intent.
Still inexcusable, as Youtube apparently has the resources to prevent this kind of thing, yet chooses not to (or just gives up on the problem).

claas kuhnen

Free for us to use when you ask for money to pay for it - but Googles currency is user data so which is why I did said they don't do thinks to be nice. A lot of their products only are developed as long as it fits their need, not the user need.

Once you conflict with them you quickly realize what Google is interested in.

TiagoTiago

Google isn't doing anything for free, you pay with your privacy.

hsoj95

This is totally inexcusable on both Youtube's and Sony's part. Shame on you! Sony has no right to block the video as it has (to my knowledge) no usage of any Sony material, and Youtube had no right to block the video without actual evidence that the video contained copyrighted content.

Peter Boos

STOP buying sony products we can BAN THEM TOO !

Brian Lockett

Not with PS4 being one of the hottest electronic on the market. It's a noble gesture, but any such effort from the relatively small Blender community compared to multiple millions of Sony gamers hardly make Sony flinch. It's sentimentally satisfying, but ultimately, not much on practical worth. I say this all rather shamefully, though--not even this sad fiasco shall stand in my way of Kingdom Hearts 3. That's probably going to be the general sentiment among many.

Peter Boos

blender has over a milion users... it has some impact if we boycot Sony, and i am 100% they listen to boycots, its the worst negative impact on their marketing sector.

Durb

be careful with these corporations. many of them want to acquire and kill successful independent projects.
they are one step behind, but they always want to be one step ahead.......
and the corporative money has a big price. once it pays for anything, that thing is not independent anymore.

Vik Mulligan

It's not just malevolence that drives their desire to kill independent projects, either. It's self-interest. The writing is on the wall: technology is making it easier to create and distribute media, meaning that the enormous corporations that used to have a monopoly on these abilities risk becoming irrelevant. (That's not to say I have any sympathy whatsoever for Sony in this; only that, by understanding the corporations' motivations, we can anticipate their likely actions.)

If Sony doesn't stand down, I think we should organize a massive artists' boycott of Sony products. Many, many people who use commercial hardware and software also use powerful open-source tools like Blender. The makers of the former need to hear loud and clear that we won't stand for attempts to suppress the latter.

jwrl

It's all very well getting irate here. This will change nothing. I have just sent the following post to my local Sony company:

"Sony,it appears that you have claimed copyright violation on Youtube from the Blender production "Sintel". I believe that you are incorrect in this, and I believe that this behaviour is despicable. In my opinion it's doubly despicable because you have yourselves apparently used the Blender production "Elephant's Dream" in your own publicity without attribution, thus arguably violating their copyright yourself.

I realise that as a business you are always searching for ways to improve your profitability. This is most definitely not the way to do it. All that this behaviour is likely to achieve is second thoughts when people are making consumer purchase decisions.

If this block has been incorrectly applied by Youtube without your knowledge it would arguably be smart to quickly address the situation.

I have chosen to post this to (Sony) broadcast, business and government because there is no category that I could find that met my needs. I believe that this has the potential to impact on Sony as an entire company industry-wide, ranging from the consumer division to Sony Pictures."

I would strongly recommend others here to do something similar.

Oskarkar

Because my English is not as good as yours and because you expressed it so well I took the liberty to copy and paste your text to Facebook Sony accounts I could find. Hope you do not mind!

Shane

This is great news and just at the right time - Guess who the main sponsor of gooseberry is? Thanks for the support Sony, with any luck we can also get them to throw in a cinema release for gooseberry as part of the settlement.

Stepan Kuroga

Take that americunt slaves!

Vance Decker

Not surprising at all. When I worked for Sony Studios it was full of sociopaths with little or no talent.

I once sat through a presentation which was supposed to be about the filming of spider man, and it turned out to be an executives resume on powerpoint slides. This studio is at the bottom of the trash pile.

Shane

This is great news and just at the right time - Guess who the main sponsor of gooseberry is? Thanks for the support Sony, with any luck we can also get them to throw in a cinema release for gooseberry as part of the settlement.

ChaosAnimeX

So companies are finally trying to end patent trolling, and to satisfy their trolling needs they turn to fucking over open source projects. Pathetic. Are these companies run by people or monkeys?

claas kuhnen

CEOs and shareholders to be more specific - human beings with $ interests.

Brian Lockett

This is all the more reason why Project Gooseberry needs to target a wider audience than just merely the Blender community. There are far more voices who would support the project to protest stuff like this and to support Blender's philosophy of freedom and openness, than there are of just Blender users alone out there who'd support the project out of pure interest of the project. This project needs support for both its voice and its interest as a project.

13 days left, Blender Foundation! I say, think about it! o/

Johannes Steidele

Just sent a complaint email to Sony, let's spam them!

!!! Liberté, égalité, fraternité !!!

Brian Lockett

Let's be the better side and not spam them. Let's just raise intelligent arguments publicly.

Johannes Steidele

I follow your train of thought, but it's not about being the better side. Spaming means emails flooding in, and a flood of email complaints which are legit is definitely being the better side. If you want to reach for something it means that you have to do something. Writing intelligent arguments publicly is all the doodoodaadaa to which complaints should follow. Example: If your neighbour is having loud music on all night and day and you are having sleepless nights, would you rather talk to the nice lady next door who's also having trouble with this same neighbour, have a lovely discussion with her time and time again, instead of just knocking on the crazies door and ask him (politely for the first time of course) to turn the music down?

Still Facebook and G+ and all those platforms of discussion are good places to start something, but not to finish something. So get it on bros!

Charge!

Brian Lockett

Spamming's the fastest way to look tactless about the situation, as well. The Western world has gotten so acclimated to the likes of free speech, we merit any and all usages of such as valuable and justified. I understand the voice of concern on the matter, but I scarcely see what's achieved in merely stuffing repeat emails at people who are probably not going to read a single one.

It's better to make the issue known with intelligence and poise somewhere to sway the public in your favor. If you want to reach for something it means that you have to do something. Bu if you can't win your case with reason, you cannot truly win, at the end.

As for your analogy, it sorta fails in that in spamming Sony's mailbox, it's not the polite asking the first time. It's jumping straight into an argumentative mode of exchange. In any case, if you were to do such, the offender would most likely just turn the music up louder out of spite (until the cops were called).

My point isn't that we shouldn't be persistent, but that we shouldn't go about the situation in a brash, tactless, groupthink manner. One can effectively expose the issue publicly and put public pressure on Sony without resorting to the equivalent of simply yelling louder to Sony, who'd cover their ears and sing "lalala!" over your noise.

If Sony's truly behind this matter, all it would take is someone civil and rational enough to first properly verify Sony's responsibility in the matter, expose the gravity of the situation, weigh what such the issue means to the other (conveying the relevance to other people besides those with your similar interest), and make it transparent what you're hoping happens in doing such.

This might seem simple, but laying down a nice irrefutable argument given with civilly can work wonders. If Sony reacts wrong to it, it only upsets the target audience even more, because now they've rebuked you despite all rational effort.

But carry on about it in chants of spamming entitlement, and all Sony would have to do towards gaining sympathy is show how childish many acted to the situation, along with offering some sort of "reason" why such was their simple mistake.

You might would get the results you're after in overturning the YouTube block of Sintel, but you'll utterly fail in holding the irresponsibility solely on Sony in the matter, which is of greater importance.

This is why I say, Let's just raise intelligent arguments publicly. Charge with class and being blameless in the entire matter.

AspiringAnimator

I wonder if there's a way to have this reported by some big news company like Fox or something? Like one of the sub-headlines on their website or something?

Osukaru Martínez Gutiérrez

Reclaim! You have the right to do so! Dont let SONY win this one. XP

Osukaru Martínez Gutiérrez

Reclaim! You have the right to do so! Dont let SONY win this one. XP

Anuga

The Sintel Movie has been up on Youtube how long?
How many uploads are there of Sintel on Youtube?
Why is it, that the only copy of Sintel, that is "Banned", is the one on the Blender Foundation Channel?

Anyone thought of that?...

vangaans

As a PS3 owner I've been tossing up between which console to get next, PS4 or XBox One. Thanks Sony you just made my decision really easy ... XBox One it is!

Brian Lockett

That's a terrible way to determine the inferior machine as your choice of the two consoles. Hahaha!

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

AspiringAnimator

Haha! ironically, I also was sort of upset with Sony before this thing started. My PSP's disc drive completely broke for no reason so now my entire game collection has been nulled. Welp, good thing I have the 3DS! :P

blendercross

Big companys ( like sony ) are crying about pirates ,torrents and so on but do not accepting CC?
Welcome to the real world.
Fighting sony in that case doesent bring something i've read here in some posts.
That means we accept this !! - I DO NOT!!

Justin

The Blender community should actually all agree to boycott and not purchase any SONY products and not just Sony Pictures products until they stop their schoolyard bullying type of behavior (get a petition going) . This includes Playstation consoles and games, etc. With the size of the Blender community I don't think they would be stupid enough to try this again.

klikmaker

I just watched the full official Blender version of Sintel on my iPhone. Did Sony relent, or is this just a fluke? I did a search on Sintel, and that's what the title was, the official Blender version of Sintel.

AspiringAnimator

It was probably an upload from someone else's account. Lots of people downloaded it and reposted it... AND GAVE CREDIT TO THE BLENDER FOUNDATION

http://www.BonixMusic.com/ 8-bit

It's possible it was an innocent oversight/mistake by Sony although we'll probably never know the truth. I think the right thing would be for Sony to apologize and for them to go out of there way to rectify the situation, now. Couple that with a nice donation to the Blender foundation and I think the Blender community would accept the apology and move on. If done with intelligence and a cool head, leveraging this could be a good thing to bring awareness to Blender and open movies.

Iftekhar Ahmed

So cheap of SONY

Truthful

I don't understand why everyone goes nuts over this, they are letting you host your video on their site for free and allowing you to get in touch with a HUGE client base which again they give you access to for free. They also have to respond to copyright infringement while keeping costs low, this is obviously an accident I am sure google is trying to keep all sides happy (client base, authors and copyright groups) it's not realistic to assume that accidents are not going to happen.

AspiringAnimator

Because of what it implies. SONY basically has said that they own some or all of the things in the Sintel movie. We know for a fact that it was all original work by the talented people involved with the Durian project. Now SONY steps in and says that it's theirs, when it's in fact the hard work of several people who do NOT work for SONY. (At least, that is the feeling right now, since no official release has said that it was YouTube or SONY.)

Truthful

And while I agree it was a mistake but it would make sense that SONY has the same system google has by automatically submitting a take down notice. which begs the question was it intentional or unintentional seeing that SONY is a multi-billion (million?) dollar company one video on youtube does not pose much (if any) of a threat to profits, in fact the act of sending a take down notice has caused them more trouble than leaving the video alone based on this I can only guess that this was nothing more than an accident.

claas kuhnen

Google does nothing for free. That is a major thought fallacy. Look at Google Docs, the software is only produced sofar that it fits Google needs not the users need. Google Maps is great and free for the use but not free to make. Gmail is free to use but you pay in add space in your screen and delivering Google user data which for them is money.

Same goes wit Youtube.

Truthful

The common definition of free is at no monetary costs. It is true and yes these services need to be maintained somehow. The difference being you are not paying money to "buy" the product it is free to you, however you are the product. Saying that it is free is right! its costs you no money whatsoever. But if you want to split hairs then yes by the exact definition it will cost you time... and data and even a little space on your screen. If you had to pay money to see youtube videos then I could see your point of view but you don't they. are. free. It was most likely an automated error anyway it will be unblocked it seems like a lot of unrest over nothing IMHO.

Josh Strawbridge

i'm not disagreeing with your whole comment... it's just that google is most certainly not trying to keep all sides happy. especially considering how often things like this happen and how many people get screwed out of ad profits on their youtube partner accounts from false claims without any sort of reimbursement once those claims are dropped. they're erring on the side of bigger business rather than users because bigger businesses have more legal weight to throw around.
another thing, the reason youtube has a huge client base and free hosting is because a huge portion of it's userbase would stop using it if it weren't free and google is making money off the ads presented on the content the users are supplying for free.

that's another part of what makes this kind of crap so bad. the big draw to youtube is not these big companies that are slapping copyright claims on everything and it's mama, i mean heck, pirates don't go to youtube to pirate things. the big draw to youtube is the user created content but if a big company comes around it's the users who get screwed.

Truthful

While I agree with you as to the loss of profits (although in this case the media attention has most likely reimbursed the user for any loss in views or lack of ad clicks.) especially when it relates to "the little guy" but google is just trying to cause as little hassle as possible for itself and unfortunately there are some causalities that are caught in the crossfire. Without googles ability to make and maintain profits there would be no google (for better or for worse). And I am sure if you look at some statistics somewhere you will find how many of SONY's videos that are pirated by users and despite (supposed) loss in profits there are no charges brought against these people who are clearly infringing copyright on youtube (most of the time or any time I am aware of). I am willing to guess that 99% of the videos SONY requests to be taken down actually contains copyrighted material. And while yes for the 1% of the time it sometimes hurts the authors of the videos, but it is necessary to stop the spread of copyrighted material (from a company’s viewpoint). People will always "move" because of the influential, this is true in all walks of life political, business and even in life in relation to predator and prey. It's impractical to assume this rule shouldn't apply here or there.

Josh Strawbridge

i don't think the blender foundation has a youtube partner account and google would be able to make and maintain profits regardless of better policies in place for this kind of thing.

even if 99% of the videos SONY requests to be taken down do contain their own copyrighted material it is an easy bet that a large portion of that percentage actually falls under fair use so just saying "oh, it contains our copyrighted material" and it automatically being taken down without any actual review to see if it really is copyright infringement is an extremely flawed thing.

it's the same kind of flawed thinking that game companies use to treat their actual customers like criminals and force them to deal with all kinds of DRM while the pirates don't have to deal with any of it once it's been cracked and it always gets cracked. kind of a "you've got this so you must be a criminal regardless of if you're using lawfully" kind of thing.

it's also the same kind of thinking that lead to that whole sony rootkit cd scandal.

that kind of thinking is just as flawed as a company thinking that they actually could (much less should) stop the spread of copyrighted material. it's an extremely flawed viewpoint especially when considering that the sharing and the spread of this kind of stuff only serves to further it's audience and profits. Neil Gaiman is a famous example of that. people were infringing his copyrighted material all over the place and he hated it until he figured out that the places it was being shared the most were also the places where he would start earning more profit BECAUSE OF the sharing. now he doesn't really mind.

i'm not saying that youtube shouldn't remove illegal uploads of movies and shows but they certainly shouldn't be dropping videos automatically just because some mentally inept bloated whale of a company used an automated process that said it may contain some copyrighted material and decided at the drop of a hat that it was bad for business if it did regardless of it keeping said material in the public eye and mind for longer than it would be otherwise.

all the while the company will waste money and resources in a lot of wrong places just because they're too stuck in the past and busy blaming actual customers for their loss in profits to know what should be done in the present.

saying sony is influential for trying to keep dying market mechanics in place rather than finding a way to work better inside the changes that are happening or worse yet, trying to control those changes just shows they're less influential and more of a bloated old whale throwing it's weight around in it's death throes. let's talk about predator and prey and survival of the fittest. sony isn't adapting it's failing to adapt and needs to find a new strategy rather than old ones that aren't a good fit for the way things have changed around it.

KennedyRichard

Oh, man, that's so sad and feels incredibly unfair!!! I don't know who's at fault, Youtube or Sony, but that copyright infringement claims should be immediately checked for accuracy. The worst fact about all this is that the action was taken without any room for the accused one to defend himself. Am I wrong? So, so sad...

Mathias Weitz

Isn't this a violation of some law, i mean, claiming a public property as an own creation is like stealing. Doesn't apply some piracy paragraphs on that ?

Richard Sierra

April 5, 2014 is our pearl Harbor day in our blender community. Sony enterprise is a strong supporter to Autodesks commercial software expansion. We need strong and fearless leadership to counter attack this threat to our ways of free creative status. Let us express our anger toward a giant tyrant who want to denied us the right to create films under free open-software tools. In 1942 millions of young solider went over sea to fight an evil ideology that limits freedom. Where do you stand? Let us use solidarity as our choice of defenses to preserve our freedom now and to tomorrow.

chromemonkey

At dawn, we build a mass-driver cannon using open-source hardware, and use it to hurl old Sony hardware at their headquarters at rail-gun speeds!!!

claas kuhnen

Best comment ever

AspiringAnimator

As frustrated and angry as this makes me, it makes me feel good to know that professionals are jealous of all the stuff we blender users can do. :)

My Mistake 0 this is not the official version - could not delete my comment.

art pen

Ton is right! SUPPORT GOOSEBERRY!!!

Ben Bout

I'd sue.

craigr

Can ANYONE file a DMCA complaint? What would happen if all the Sony videos on YouTube suddenly got taken down via frivolous complaints?

TiagoTiago

I think this was less than DMCA; from what i understood, Google has Youtube automatically taking down stuff that matches what companies tell them is theirs (though since they got so many videos being uploaded all the time, the system prioritizes things that are more popular since it can't check every single video faster than new videos get uploaded). Essentially taking a shortcut that doesn't involve the law; letting companies getting away with what would otherwise count as false claims, without even having to pay lawyers.

Someone

I would encourage everyone to send an email to [email protected], who is in charge of public relations.

I agree with fongaboo.. Submit a counter-claim or even sue them back and I believe Blender would win the case, because of their accusation would hurt Blender credibility, while in fact, Sony doesn't even have tiny bit of its right on this masterpiece.. From that winning case you could get A LARGE AMOUNT of bucks which later can be used to further the development of Blender...

Oliver: 84 days is quite long..

Jan Schmitz

If you switch the beginning characters of 'Sony Playstation', you'll get 'Pony Slaystation'.... think about it :)

wanderingbishop

surely if anything could be a candidate for a "sue Sony for copyright fraud and stand a comfortable chance of winning" it would be this...

glow_in_the_dark

It's time that DMCA abuse goes into criminal law. Nothing says "pay attention" better than the potential of a custodial sentence for those responsible of abusing the DMCA takedown process, and would stop the pretty much automated abuse overnight. I do not have a problem with correct enforcement, but such processes must be made to err on the side of innocence, not force innocents to go and defend themselves.

Nick Vasquez

Just found this Article on torrent freak SONY BLOCKS CREATIVE COMMONS MOVIE WITH BOGUS DMCA TAKEDOWN

Is there any type of petition we can sign? spread the word loud enough to the masses?

SRoach

I'm not sure how the Bing news crawler works, (I'm still mad at Google,) but what if everyone here made it a point to search "Sony blocks Sintel" at, oh, say 1600UTC tomorrow? (That'd be about 11am here, 12 noon in NYC, about 9 in the morning on the west coast.)
Maybe we can push the issue to the top of the popular now carousel.

SRoach

Well, I just dropped a note on the message boards of an SOE game I play. I may be saving 30 bucks a month after this.

SRoach

Well, actually the subscription is only 15 dollars, not 30. None the less, if this isn't cleared up by the start of the next billing cycle, I guess I'll but the money I was spending towards SOE games towards Gooseberry instead.
That's a few days away, but inside the deadline for the kickstarter.

I liked it when Sony made fun of Apple in CWACF Meatballs 2. But now its like urgh...

Denis Dzyuba

Good news, everyone: at the moment of this writing (6:26 PM, Australian Standard Eastern Time), Sintel was absolutely playable from the link above on my tablet. So it seems that whatever madness possessed Sony, or Google, or both was only temporary.

critofur

The main problem here is we are not fighting back vs corporate corruption of our government sufficiently.

EDIT: By the way, the movie is back up.

Danm

He should just load it over at Zippcast. They don't use bots to flag their stuff.

McBuff

Good to see that the video is back up. At least some good news, though it does leave a bitter taste...

Marc Estrada

ok so what was used on Synttel that was owned by Sony?

http://www.blendernation.com Bart Veldhuizen

Sony hasn't communicated anything about this. It looks like a technical glitch.

ragething

The only way I can figure this is if Sony have a bot that has spotted this and gone for the first entry on Youtube. If its conscious people doing this, I have no sympathy and expect severely prohibitive fines to be dished.

That being said, Sony do have an out. If they have run foul of their software, they get the chance to make amends.

forgiveness in my mind is earned by way of a 3 tiered approach.

1 - still angry

Of course, they need to give some people an actual job to fact check their bot. You must do this as a basic minimum. DMCA is bigger than just Sony and it is they that should help rectify this for their own reputation's sake.
================
2 - less angry, nearer to neutral

That's just a start, a little donation towards the foundation by Sony might put their xperia range back on my wishlist. no promises.
================================
3 - looking over xperia literature with a dash over to any high speed Pro camcorders, wondering if they have finally got their contrast levels correct.

May I suggest some willing programmers adding their time to the cause for a year.
========================================================

You want to make people happy right now. yes, Sony...I'm talking to you..you're going to read it. You have enough people reading this crap but not watching your bots. get on that... now, go to your room.

Noah Gregory

Sony Pictures Movies and TV Shows? Doesn't sound official. Sounds like someone pretended to be Sony and called for the takedown.